Finale (Caraval, 3)

It was the sort of celebration that would make it into history books and eventually turn into romanticized fairy tales that made even the horrible parts seem attractive. A hundred years from now people who heard of the Fallen Star’s coronation celebration might wish they’d attended, although many of the humans actually there were looking as if they wished they’d not been part of the lucky crowd allowed inside.

Scarlett didn’t know how the guards had decided who to let in from the courtyard, but she wondered if they’d been told they’d be rewarded if they survived the night, for despite all the abuse, no one appeared to be fighting back.

Near the stairs she’d just come down, Her Handmaidens were sewing up the lips of guests with thick red thread. Then there was the Unwed Bride in her veil of tears, kissing all the married men until their wives began to cry. The Prince of Hearts was there looking debauched, but Scarlett didn’t watch him long enough to see what he was doing. Or maybe he was the one controlling emotions so that all the humans behaved.

Priestess, Priestess smelled of suffering as she wove around guests in a gown made of layers of veil-thin material that billowed as she moved. Scarlett had never spoken to her, but Anissa had told her that the Priestess’s gift was her voice. The Fate could make a person betray their mother or their lover or their most terrible secrets.

Scarlett tried to steer herself father away from the Priestess—not that there were many safe places. The throne, where Gavriel would have traditionally sat, was now gushing blood, like the Bleeding Throne in Decks of Destiny, though Scarlett didn’t know if it was the actual Bleeding Throne or just a replica. Across from it was a cheery polished wood stage that reeked of mortification and torment. It was just like the scene behind Nicolas’s estate. Scarlett watched while Jester Mad moved people around it as if they were marionettes. Their arms and legs were tied up with strings, which Jester Mad magically controlled to make their movements jerky and doll-like.

Scarlett wanted to cut them all free, but they didn’t appear to be in as much danger as the ring of people around Poison, all nervously holding goblets of bubbling purple liquid. She wasn’t sure what sort of game he was playing. But she remembered Anissa’s warnings about torture and death as she noticed a few of the room’s newest decorations: lifelike stone statues and melting ice sculptures of people who all held goblets in their hands.

Scarlett dug her heels in and looked up at her father. “I think your Fates are taking things too far. I thought you wanted your people to adore you.”

“They’re only having fun.”

“I’m not.” She tore her arm free from Gavriel. “I want you to stop this.”

Scarlett knew that there might be consequences, but fighting this would be worth it. “This doesn’t make me want to finish conquering my powers and become one of your Fates.”

Gavriel’s face wrinkled with irritation. “Poison, turn them back into humans; my daughter is not fond of this game.”

A few minutes later most of the statues and sculptures were human once more. But the evening’s horrors were not over.

Just as Poison was returning his last statue back to life, Scarlett spied a handsome face among the guards near the doors. Golden-brown skin, playful mouth, and warm brown eyes locked on to hers. Julian.

Scarlett should have looked away. She should have done something to cause a distraction so that Julian could flee this wretched party. His disguise kept the Fates away from him for now, but that hardly made him safe.

“That young guard,” the Fallen Star said, following her gaze. “Do you know him? Should I bring him over here? Perhaps we can use him to test your new powers.”

“No,” Scarlett said. But again, she should have done things differently. She should have said anything other than that one word. As soon as it was past her lips, the Fallen Star turned toward the closest Fate—Priestess, Priestess of the hypnotic voice.

“Bring that guard with the scar on his face over here,” the Fallen Star instructed.

“Don’t, please,” Scarlett said. But please appeared to be about as effective as the word no. It only made the Fallen Star grin something vicious as the Priestess slipped her arm around Julian and coaxed him forward.

“I don’t think I should test my powers here,” Scarlett said. “What if I fail like before? I don’t want to embarrass you.”

“I don’t think that’s going to happen this time.” Gavriel gave her an unsettling smile as the Priestess appeared, holding on to Julian’s arm.

A lock of brown hair fell across his forehead. He looked far more boyish than the scoundrel she’d first met on Trisda and far too mortal as the Priestess dug her fingers into his arm.

Her skin shone like marble, and her flowing gown made Scarlett think of virginal sacrifices—though she had a feeling that Julian was to be the sacrifice in this scenario.

But Julian didn’t cower; he stood straight and tall, surrounded by brave bursts of goldenrod and reckless whirls of brass. “Thanks for bringing me over here,” he said. “I was hoping to ask the new princess to dance.”

Amusement lit the Fallen Star’s eyes. “First I need you to answer a question.” Giddy sparks filled the air as he turned to the Priestess. “Ask him how he knows my daughter.”

The Fate repeated the question and when she spoke, her voice was all Scarlett could hear. It was the sound of shining lights, full moons, wishes on the verge of being granted.

Julian answered without hesitation, “She’s the love of my life.”

Scarlett’s heart broke and burst all at once.

The sparks around the Fallen Star grew into wild flames. “Perhaps this is why you’ve failed to conquer your powers. Do you love him as well?”

The Priestess repeated the Fallen Star’s question to Scarlett. Suddenly, all she could think about was Julian. They were back in Caraval, tangled on a bed as he fed her a drop of his blood to save her life. She loved him then and she loved him now. But she couldn’t confess it to Gavriel.

“Don’t battle the question, auhtara, or it will kill you.”

Tears streamed down Scarlett’s cheeks. “Yes, I love him desperately.”

“How disappointing.” Gavriel motioned to the Priestess, who began to drag Julian away.

“Stop!” Scarlett tried to follow them.

The Fallen Star wrapped one bright red hand on the verge of catching fire around her arm and wrenched her toward the bleeding throne.

Excruciating pain tore across her shoulders. Scarlett cried out, drawing looks from all over the ballroom.

“I’m not planning on hurting him, and I’d rather not hurt you again, but I will if you don’t behave.” The Fallen Star’s hand lost its heat, but his grip on Scarlett’s blistering arm remained. He guided her back to the bloody throne as the Priestess brought Julian to Jester Mad’s revolting stage.

“I don’t want him hearing us and putting on a performance like the one you incited with my gift.”

“What are you talking about?” Scarlett said.

“I think we’re past pretending.” The Fallen Star dropped his lips to Scarlett’s ear. “Nothing you’ve done this last week has been a secret. Did you really think Anissa wouldn’t tell me everything you were up to?”

Yes, Scarlett had.

“I’ll have to punish you again for that later, unless you prove yourself right now.” Gavriel sat upon his bloody throne, and forced Scarlett to perch on the arm of it like a decoration. He’d called her a princess earlier, but she was just a pawn. Blood stained the back of her beautiful gown as she wondered how else Anissa had betrayed her. But now wasn’t the time to worry.

The entire party watched as Julian was brought to the stage across the room. Scarlett willed him to run, but he must have been afraid for her, because he didn’t fight as Jester Mad and the Priestess tied strings around his arms and legs.

“Now,” Gavriel whispered. “I want you to use your powers on him to take away his love for you and replace it with hatred. Once I see true loathing for you in his eyes, I will let him leave here alive.”

“I can’t do that.” Scarlett’s voice shook with every word. And it wasn’t just because every part of her being was repelled by the idea of making Julian despise her. “I can’t control emotions.”

“Then he will die,” Gavriel said reasonably. “And if I feel you attempt to shift my feelings in any way, I will set this entire room on fire and kill every human inside.”

Scarlett took a fragile breath as her eyes darted around all the helpless people in the room. Half were watching her now. The rest were turned toward Julian, tied up like a puppet on the stage. And still the colors around him were fierce and bright and full of the deep, unending crimson love. She’d never felt so much love in her life. It was pure and unselfish, without fear or regret. All he wanted in that moment was for her to be safe.

And she had to take all those feelings away for him to live.

Scarlett could have cried. She looked at him and mouthed the words I love you, knowing she might never say and truly mean those words again. If she succeeded in conquering her powers, she wouldn’t just be taking away Julian’s ability to love her. She’d finally become one of her father’s Fates and lose her own capacity to love.

So, before she tried to erase Julian’s love, she let herself feel it one final time. She let her love out to touch his, the way two separate instruments might play together to create a more beautiful song, and suddenly Scarlett knew how to change what Julian was feeling—how to shift his song so that it no longer matched hers.

Before, she’d always tried to project a feeling or an image onto another person. But what she needed to do was to push against his feelings. She needed to reach with her magic and twist them until their colors began to shift and shift and shift and—

“No!” Julian thrashed against the strings holding him to the stage. He might not have heard the Fallen Star’s instructions, but he knew the Fate’s ultimate goal for Scarlett. Julian knew this assault against his emotions was because of her magic—magic he’d warned her against. “Don’t do this, Crimson!”

The Fallen Star clapped and sparks shot out from the tips of his fingers.

On the stage, tears tracked down Julian’s cheeks. He was fighting her, battling her powers with everything he had. But even his fighting was helping her magic win. She could see his love shifting to anger.

Scarlett started to shake.

The Fallen Star grabbed hold of her again to keep her from falling off the arm of the throne. She didn’t know if it was from battling Julian, or if it was because she’d finally accessed her full powers, but her body no longer felt under her control.

She could feel the magic she was using, filling her and surrounding her the way her love for Julian had moments ago. It was heady and powerful. Without even trying, she could see more than just Julian’s emotions. Scarlett saw colors across the room. The eager green of several Fates danced around a rainbow of terrified and morbidly curious human colors, and she knew that if she wanted to, she could twist them all with a thought. It was wondrous in all the wrong ways. Every inch of her skin prickled. When she briefly glanced down, her skin was glowing and shining with gold dust—and Fated magic.

“Finally.” The Fallen Star tightened his grip on her arm. “You’re almost there, auhtara.”

Julian screamed again. “Don’t do this, Scarlett!”

The name sounded wrong. He never called her Scarlett. But the name didn’t hurt as much as it should have.

“You’re close,” the Fallen Star said. “Let go of your feelings for him and take hold of the rest of your power!”

Scarlett pushed harder and Julian’s face turned into a snarl. She could see the edges of his emotions turning brown, the way something does after it’s been burned.

Julian bucked against his bindings. “You lied, Scarlett! You said you would always choose me.” His feverish eyes met hers, but for once there was no warmth in them.

She wasn’t saving him. She was destroying him.

Her magic faltered.

She couldn’t do it.

Anissa had said over and over that Scarlett needed to become what the Fallen Star wanted most to defeat him, but the Fate had betrayed her. And Scarlett knew that even if this was the only way to best her father, it was too much of a betrayal to everything she believed in. If she let Gavriel push her into doing this, how much further would he be able to push her once her love was gone and she was a Fate? Would Gavriel threaten to kill Julian again if she refused to take away Gavriel’s ability to love? And would she be able to resist him—would she even want to?

Scarlett leaned into her magic once more and untwisted Julian’s emotions, freeing them until they were no longer tangled and knotted and hateful.

He stopped thrashing and his head sagged, but he still managed to look at her with the most beautiful brown eyes she’d ever seen. They were glassy and red—he was still in pain, but he was also still in love with her.

The Fallen Star squeezed Scarlett’s arm, making blisters break out over the skin that he’d already burned, but it wasn’t enough to change her mind. He could scorch her, torture her, put her in a cage again, but he could never make her hurt Julian.

“What are you doing?” he demanded.

Scarlett smiled for the crowd, as if this were part of the show he’d forced her to put on, but she kept her voice low, knowing that defying him publicly could earn Julian a very swift death. “I’m making a new deal. If you want my powers, I will give them to you, but not like this. He goes free right now, or you get nothing from me.”

Blood from the throne gushed faster, coating the Fallen Star’s arms in red. “I could kill him for your disobedience.”

“But then you would never get my powers.” Scarlett continued to smile as more heads turned their way, probably curious as to why the show had suddenly stopped. “Do this now or I will never do anything for you again.”

“Very well. I will give you what you want.” The Fallen Star motioned for Jester Mad and the Priestess to undo Julian’s binds.

“See how generous I can be?” asked Gavriel. “Your precious love will soon be free, but when I see you again, I expect you to make good on your promise. You will accept your power, you will become a true immortal, and you will take away the weakness that makes me able to love. Fail at this and I will torture everyone you care about until you are begging me to save them from their misery and finally kill them.”